Using an offset smoker?

[DigglerontheHoof]

I bought a big wood grill yesterday w/ an "offset" smoker.

I now realize I have no idea how to use it and it came w/ no cooking instructions.

How would I use it to say smoke a chicken or ham, etc?

Do I put the meat in the big chamber and use the small one for the fire? I've done some google searches and come up empty.

Confusion is thick this Sunday am in the Diggler household.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[JethroTull]

Your instincts are correct. Meat in big chamber, wood in small chamber.

I learned from a thread here a while back that I need another grate or some sort of contraption in the wood chamber to keep the wood/coals, etc. off the bottom of the chamber to get more air up under the fuel. I was having trouble keeping the temp up in the smoking chamber back in the winter, and Lazy Engineer, I think, (probably because he's the engineer and I'm not) posted a pic of a contraption he built to keep the fire off the bottom. Anyway, don't worry about this today. Just throw your wood in there and get started.

 

[Sucklebuster]

Dig,

In simple terms - you want to go "low and slow" which means keeping a constant temperature of around 250 degrees in the cooking (big) chamber, a little higher temp. wont hurt for cooking chicken, say 275*.

- work on maintaing the low and slow using the dampers and size of fire...ect.
- use a thermometer for the pit temp and another to check for meat temp.
- dont peek too often it interrupts the cooking process.
- practice often
- have fun, drink beer...

Post back and ask questions.

 

[#3Rules]

Big chamber = cooking chamber
Small chamber = fire box

As stated above, regulate your temp through the size of your fire, some will refer to this as the amount of "fuel", and with the damper. Always leave the cooking chamber damper 100% open, and regulate temp with the damper on the fire box. You'll probably want to start with this damper 100% open while your gettin the fire goin, and then start to shut it down to maintain your low temp.

There are a few things you can do for fuel -
-Logs (just make sure they're seasoned). You'll probably need some charcoal, preferably lump, to get the logs burnin.
-Charcoal, again preferably lump, with a few wood chunks thrown on top.
-Buy a chimney starter, lighter fluid is a no-no.

Can you post pics of that bad boy?

 

[DigglerontheHoof]

Thanks for the advice!

A couple of follow up questions:

About how much time/lb (using the above temp ranges as a base) for chicken, beef and pork?

#3Rules...I'd post a pic but it's not that big a deal...just a Charbroil from Home Depot...kind of a starter barrel to see how I take to it. I guess it might be more of a charcol burner than a wood burner.

It came w/ the fire grates so that's good...although this one didn't come w/ a thermometer, so I'll need to run get one.

I'm going to try and smoke a chicken and brats/sausage...maybe grill some steaks later.

I'll post the outcome...

 

[#3Rules]

I'd recommend that you just get a digital probe thermometer. I got mine at HEB for like $13. I just run the probe though a spud and set it on the cooking surface near the meat. This way you get an accurate reading of the temp where the meat is. Actually, get two of those. You'll need another one for you meat temp.

 

[#3Rules]

BTW - Here's what it looks like. One of the probes is giving me meat temp, the other cooking chamber temp.

As far as cooking times go, I'd worry more about the meat temp. That being said, a brisket will go about 1- 1 1/2 hours a pound, but I'll smoke mine to about 185-190 and then let it rest for a bit. You want to cook a whole chicken to about 180 in the thickest part of the thigh. Ribs, you want at least 165, this usually takes 6-8 hours. Uncooked sausage you can smoke in 2-3 hours. Always let the meat rest after you pull it from the smoker.

 

[NCAAFBALLROX]

What town (or part thereof) are you in? I can't speak for the others, but I'd be more than happy to come over & get you started on the road to smokiness...

 

[#3Rules]

I think he's out of our area, according to his profile, Dallas, TX Hollywooooooood!!!. Sorry, I can't say that w/o the ZZ Top lyric popping in my head.

 

[NCAAFBALLROX]

I said, lord, take me downtown,
I'm just lookin' for some tush.

 

[DigglerontheHoof]

Funny guys...I'm actually in Rockwall but point taken....I wish I was in Austin, too.

Back to the smoking...man....I'm good, it turned out fantastic.

I smoked a chicken, some sausage and rounded it out w/ some burgers to end it.

The chicken was phenominal...dark, rich/ deeply browned, Mesquitey, juicy and amazingly tender.

I rubbed the skin w/ salt, pepper and garlic powder.. smoked it over a can of Shiner (I put onions, garlic and chipolte powder in the beer) and loaded up the coal w/ mesquite chips. i smoked it for about 3 hours and it was perfect.

The sausage and burgers were tasty too but the chicken was the real treat.

A couple of more questions...

How should I use the "flap" on the smoke stack to help regulate the smoking?

Any good rubs/recipes that use smoking?

 

[Sucklebuster]

I leave my wide open and control the burn with the fire box damper.

 

[Brisketexan]

1 -- whenever my smoker is in use, I leave the flap on the smokestap wide open. I control my air flow SOLELY through changing the opening on the damper on my fire box. When I am finished, and I want to kill the fire completely, I close both the firebox damper and the smokestap damper. The fire then suffocates pretty quickly.

2 -- I start my fire with charcoal (in a chimney starter). I pour it onto a grate in the fire box, so there is air flow beneath the fire. I then add a good thick stick of oak, let that get to burning a bit, and then shut the door to let the cooking chamber begin to heat.

3 -- after that point, it is simply a process of watching your temperature via your thermometer, and adding a stick of oak as needed (and sometimes poking the fire around to rearrange it for better air flow).

4 -- on the subject of rubs, I honestly don't think like there's a lot of magic to it. I often use some commercial rubs ((Adams Brisket Rub, for example), top them off with some coarse ground pepper, and that's it. Season salt and pepper, even plain salt and pepper -- they'll all do. So long as you have salt and pepper in there, you have the essentials.

See numerous websites for recommended cooking temps for various meats. As for me, I do brisket at around 225, ribs at around 225, sausage at around 250, chicken at around 300-325. That does make it hard to do everything on one smoker at one time, but there you have it.

As an example, I smoked a couple of briskets for our block party potluck this weekend. You can fit a couple of smaller briskets on a smoker that size (10 pounds each or so).

1 -- use only untrimmed (also called "packer trim") briskets. You want lots of fat on there.

2 -- sprinkle liberally with rub, on both sides, ends, etc. Get it good and covered. It's best to do this the night before, but for these, I did it a mere half hour before putting them on the smoker, and couldn't tell much difference.

3 -- once you get your fire going, and your cooking chamber heating up (it doesn't have to be 225 when you put it on there, it just has to be getting good and warm), put your briskets on (they fit if you angle them a bit), FAT SIDE UP (this is important, I've accidentally done it the other way, and there is a real difference).

4 -- Leave the cooking chamber alone. Seriously. If you can at all avoid it, don't open it at all. You should simply monitor your temperature, and add wood/mess with the fire shape as necessary. Err on the side of having the temp a bit too low (175 or so) to a bit too high (once you get to 250, you'll start to over-crisp some of the outside of the brisket). For 10 lb briskets, you will keep this up for about 8 hours (for 12-14 lb brisket, I do it about 9-10 hours).

5 -- using wide aluminum foil (compared to regular size rolls), remove and wrap each brisket tightly in foil, making sure that it is fully covered.

6 -- finish the brisket, wrapped, for 3-4 hours (lean towards 4) at 225. You can do this on either the smoker or the oven, it really doesn't matter, as the brisket is now wrapped and isn't getting any more smoke. I use the oven, because the temp control is automatic. If you DO use the oven, make sure to put each wrapped brisket in a good pan, as it WILL find a way to leak some grease, and you don't want a fire in your oven.

7 -- remove briskets from oven, and open foil. Let the brisket rest for at least 20 minutes. This will allow the meat to firm up a bit so it won't completely fall apart (yes, it will be that tender).

8 -- separate the point from the flat (see diagrams that you can finf online), trim away excess fat, and slice against the grain. EAT.

 

[flaco]

I wouldn't recommend using mesquite for smoking anything longer than about three hours. Even well seasoned mesquite wood will give your meat a bitter, creasote flavor if you cook with it long enough. Now if you can burn the mesquite down to coals somewhere else and just keep adding the coals it is the best flavor you can get in my opinion but that is not practical a lot of times.

 

[Brisketexan]

Flaco speaks the truth. Seasoned woods good for smoking include oak, pecan, and hickory (there may be others in other regions, but in Texas, those are pretty much your choices).

Mesquite is a solid choice, but only if burned down to coals first. It is excellent for the more "cowboy" style of barbecue, practiced by places such as Cooper's (my favorite place, by the way). But at home, with an offset box, I stick with oak etc.

 

[NCAAFBALLROX]

Mesquite = Hot 'n Fast, not Low 'n Slow.
The biggest thing about "true" smoking is to get the deep smokiness without comporomising the tender-ness & moisture of the meat.

There is a lot of conjecture about the usefulness & efficacy of a water pan (i.e. vaporizing water to infuse the meat with moisture). Personally, I do use a water pan but then that's probably similar to why people do other things of habit.

Do some web surfing to find the 411 on this area.

Oh, yeah... always wide open with the smokestack.

 

[hornian]

I disagree with everyone re mesquite, but I'm just a young buck.

I smoke almost exclusively with mesquite, and I have never had a problem with a creosote flavor, everything from pork loin to ribs to a 15 Lb. brisket.

Of course, I use a mixture of charcoal briquets and wood, not exclusively wood, so I might not be getting as much creosote as someone who builds their fire from wood alone.

 

[12thStudStan]

Aside from a source of moisture, a lot of folks use water pans for heat retention purposes in the cooking chamber. They can help even out hot and cold spots in a cooking chamber, an inherent problem with most horizontal offsets. Fire bricks or filling a pan with sand does the same thing without the steam. You can also cover the water pan up with foil and avoid steam and clean up issues. Vertical pits and offsets constructed with heavier steel like 1/4" or designed with heat baffles and diffusers have less of a problem with hot and cold spots.

Hot and cold spots can be used to your benefit if you have a large enough cooking chamber to move things around in or cook other items at different temps, but in small smokers it can be a problem. The quick, cheap and dirty way to find out how bad your hot and cold spots are is to get a couple of those cheap tubes of biscuit dough, heat up your pit, cover your cooking grate with the biscuits, close the lid to the cooking chamber and see what happened to them after 20 minutes or so.

 

[flaco]

That reminds me of a funny story my dad tells, Stan.

When he was a boy his dad demanded fresh bisquits every morning. That was his excuse for not letting his wife go see her sister in Lubbock. Well, they invented the canned bisquits and she brought some home and said "Just stick these in the oven and you can have your fresh bisquits. " So away she went to Lubbock. My pop was laying in bed the next morning and heard, you guessed it, a loud boom from the kitchen. There were bisquits all over that oven.

 

[12thStudStan]

That's funny, flaco. I actually edited my post because I was afraid that someone would put the whole tubes of biscuits on the pit.

 

[flaco]

I thought you were just trying to trick me into falling for the ol' "exploding bisquits" trick. My family only falls for that one every fourth generation or so.

 

[DigglerontheHoof]

Wow...great advice from all.

My wife's grandad's b-day is this Sunday and I'm going to print out Brisket's instructions and smoke a brisket...wish me luck!

Brisket...hope you're around on Saturday to field questions.

 

[hornian]

In reply to:

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[Skipper]

Brisket -- pardon the dumb question from another smoking rookie, but in the #2 tip when you say "close the door" to get the cooking chamber heating up, are you talking the air intake door, or the lid of the pit?

 

[Basketball Jones]

DRY RUB:

Here's one I really like for beef or pork (it's great on steaks). It's a variation of a rub I got from a Bobby Flay book:

1/4 C ground dark coffee (espresso roast preferably)
1/4 C ancho chili powder (use ancho, not the regular stuff)
2 Tbl paprika
2 Tbl ground mexican oregano
2 Tbl dark brown sugar
2 Tbl kosher salt
2 Tbl fresh ground black pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground chipotle powder

mix together. The extra will store for a long time.

 

[Brisketexan]

Skipper -- I was talking about the main door (the lid of the cooking chamber). To heat the pit, you want a fire going in the firebox, the chimney wide open, the intake vent on the firebox open (adjust as necessary to raise or lower the temp), and BOTH the lid to the firebox AND the lid to the smoking chamber closed. And, once you are cooking, every time you open one of those lids, you lose heat, so keep the lid-opening to a minimum. You really don't need to look inside, so long as your thermometer gives you an accurate reading of what's going on in there.

 

[austintexas]

here is a pic of a grate. essential for temp control.

 

[Skipper]

Brisket, much obliged.